Review: “12 Years a Slave”

Keeping your head down and your mouth shut will only work for so long.

Earlier this year, the futuristic blockbuster film Elysium presented what I thought was the best representation of income inequality and labor struggle I had seen on the big screen in a while. The presentation shows an environment that has been rigged to keep a majority of people down, so that a few can maintain wealth — a theme that is as true today as it just might be in the future. However, the cartoonish characterizations of the rich and the forthright social commentary holds this back from being truly resonating.

Maybe we need to look backwards before going forward.

12 Years a Slave, the tragic slavery era period piece, paints a brutally honest portrait of today on a nearly age old canvas. The tale of Solomon Northup feels eerily familiar. He’s a free African American, living comfortably in the North, with a wonderful family. A job opportunity turns into a kidnapping, and Solomon soon finds himself stripped from what he thought was true. His feelings towards slavery before being enslaved are not clear, but what is understood is that he is polite, courteous and loving to those around him. Whether he acknowledges it or not, his equality has been a lie, and he’s been living on borrowed time. At the drop of a hat, he’s been forced to pay up.

Over the course of his horror, Solomon sees first hand the depths to which people will sink in order to live. First, he is sold to a seemingly kind plantation owner, who almost feels guilty for his position. When Solomon tries explaining his situation to him, the master quickly shuts him up. See, he has debts to pay, and Solomon’s truth could put what he has at jeopardy. Later, he comes to know a slave turned mistress, who happily enjoys the comfort of her station. To get there, she essentially sold herself. And now, she’s sold out everyone else. Solomon’s last master, the evil Epps, depends heavily on this masquerade to continue. Without it, he’d truly be nothing. It’s the heart pumping joy of ownership and control that gets him up in the morning. If the law weren’t on his side, and the bible readily available to be misinterpreted, he just might be at the mercy of a boss himself. For the system to work, everyone must sit down and shut up. Through inaction, everyone is complicit.

Now, the film doesn’t show images of modern America to directly juxtapose what’s happening on screen, but it doesn’t have to. We, as the audience, come into this movie with all the information ready. A story and storyteller is needed to contrast what we experience daily. Paycheck to paycheck. ER visits to phone calls with insurance reps. Wasted opportunity after wasted opportunity. The brilliance of 12 Years a Slave is not simply in showcasing the ills of yesterday, but doing so in such a universally honest manner. On every level and with every character, we can relate. Now and tomorrow.

This movie is about survival through silence, from the slaves to the slavers and from the free men to the human traffickers. Everyone depends upon maintaining the status quo in order to ensure the livelihood they believe they have. This was kind of true in Elysium, but not to the intensely tragic levels of Steve McQueen’s emotional opus. Sci fi — the ball is in your court.

5 / 5